The IMF Board of Governors convened a special virtual session for final approval of US $650 billion in emergency reserve currency or Special Drawing Rights (SDRs). Countries will receive their share of Special Drawing Rights on August 23rd.
“More than $200 billion of these new reserve funds will go to developing countries to support pandemic relief and recovery efforts,” said Eric LeCompte, Executive Director of the religious development group Jubilee USA Network. “While these resources are needed, developing countries must receive more aid to get beyond the crisis.”
More than $400 billion of the emergency currency goes to wealthy countries. Wealthy countries can donate their SDRs to developing countries directly, or through initiatives from the IMF or development banks.
“Most wealthy countries don’t need their share of Special Drawing Rights and they need to donate them quickly to developing countries struggling with the health and economic crisis,” stated LeCompte.
Read Jubilee USA’s IMF COVID response letter calling for Special Drawing Rights aid with nearly 270 signatories here.
“He was talking about going pro and going to college. He had a future on him. He had a future. I just wish that he was still here with us,” said Ruskin High School football teammate, Kenderal Webber. “I lost a lot of friends, but I was real close with Terrell. I wouldn’t never thought this would happen.”
“He was like another little brother. I see him and my cousins running around. He was a good person and ya’ll took him from everybody now,” said Bell’s friend, Tyisha Peak.
Earlier this week FOX4 spoke to the teen’s pastor, Dennis Lester who said the teen was active and faithful member at the neighborhood church, Bethel Family Worship Center.
At the vigil, there were also calls for change and peace.
Local gospel artist Christian Fly delivering an emotional plea before the crowd.
“Enough is enough. Until we teach our kids that their neighbor is deserving of the same respect of those in their household. This going to continue to happen,” Fly said. “We got to teach them better problem-solving skills. Until pain hurts you enough to make you want to change, we are going to keep going through things like this.”
A juvenile has been arrested and charged in Bell’s death.
National Gun Violence Survivors Week is about elevating our voices and stories, because after living through terrible tragedy, we have found the strength to speak out to help prevent others from experiencing the same pain. It is an emotionally intense week, and after reading and sharing so many stories, I hope you will continue to practice self care and explore resources with the Everytown Survivor Network.
I also wanted to share some of the incredible things you accomplished in the third year of National Gun violence Survivors Week.
Field Events: Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action volunteers organized close to 95 virtual events with more than 1700 in attendance, including the first ever NGVSW student summit. Thank you to all of you who organized and spoke at events to ensure survivor voices were heard across the country: from panel discussions to acts of service such as blood drives and book drives, it had a powerful impact.
A moving event lead by California Survivor Engagement Leads
Social Media: Thousands of survivor stories were shared on social media, including 55k mentions of the hashtag #GVSurvivorsWeek and related terms. I was honored to be a part of the Survivor Twitter team — a truly powerful force — who were sharing stories of survivors in the Network all throughout the week to reach more Americans with the urgent message that we must address our country’s gun crisis. If you haven’t already and would like to, you can join the Survivor twitter team here, which engages on campaigns throughout the year.
Federal, State, City Leaders: More than 370 survivors of gun violence released an open letter to the 117th Congress highlighting the shared life-changing trauma of gun violence, which we shared with elected officials and on social media and media during the week. Thank you to all of you who signed the letter.
Our partners in Washington responded by lifting up your voices through social media, virtual conversations, press releases, and floor speeches, including Ambassador Susan Rice, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA-12), Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) and Rep. Dwight Evans (D-PA-03). The week was even featured during floor speeches in both chambers of Congress by Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) and Rep. Dwight Evans (D-PA).
Beyond the federal government, dozens of mayors and state officials from across the country shared your stories on social media and issued mayoral proclamations. Everytown’s research team also put together a fact sheet for local government leaders on “Community-Led Services for Survivors.”
Partnerships: Over 65 partners, including nearly every gun violence prevention organization, national membership groups, non-profit organizations, and faith partners across various issue areas, joined the effort to lift stories and facts about the impact of gun violence.
In the week leading up to Survivors Week, PEOPLE Magazine released People Features: Gun Violence Survivor Athletes, a virtual roundtable where members of the Everytown Athletic Council shared their personal experiences with gun violence.
Throughout the week, there were many media clips in which survivors spoke out about the impact of gun violence across the country. Here are just a few of them:
America’s extra vaccine doses could be key to global supply
Data: Duke Global Health Innovation Center. Chart: Michelle McGhee/AxiosThe Biden administration’s purchase of 200 million additional Pfizer and Modern doses means the U.S. could fully vaccinate 300 million people with just those two vaccines — and 355 million more people if four additional vaccines gain FDA approval, Axios World editor Dave Lawler reports.Why it matters: The White House says the U.S. will eventually donate excess doses to other countries, but it hasn’t released a plan to do so.Between the lines: Sources in the administration emphasize that despite the bulk orders, only two vaccines have been approved and supplies remain scarce.Most of the 1.2 billion doses of six vaccines currently on the books were purchased as part of the Trump administration’s Operation Warp Speed.Keep reading.
Efforts to restrict facial recognition are gathering momentum around the country, including the investigation of the Capitol insurrection, Axios Future author Bryan Walsh writes.Why it matters: With dozens of companies selling the ability to identify people from pictures of their faces — and no clear federal regulation governing the process — facial recognition is seeping into the U.S.Driving the news: The Minneapolis City Council voted yesterday to bar its police department from using facial recognition technology, Axios Twin Cities’ Nick Halter reports.Minneapolis will join other cities that have restricted the technology, including Portland, San Francisco and Boston.Keep reading.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) greets Jason Miller, adviser to President Trump, at the Capitol yesterday. Photo: Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call via Getty ImagesHistorians are already drawing lessons from Impeachment II, Axios managing editors David Nather and Margaret Talev report:The power of impeachment: That’s pretty much gone. Historian Douglas Brinkley says if former President Trump is acquitted, it’ll be clear impeachment is a political process, not a legal one.America’s changing demographics: Renee Romano, an Oberlin College professor who specializes in the field of historical memory, says that outcome would raise the question: “Can America ever truly be a multiracial democracy?'”Congress leaves the field: With a Trump acquittal, the Senate would have passed on two chances to hold a president accountable for undermining the authority of Congress, said Andrew Rudalevidge, expert on presidential power.Share this story.
En español | A nonprofit organization that specializes in teaching technology skills to older adults is uniting with AARP to offer its courses to even more older adults nationwide — for free.
Senior Planet and its parent organization, Older Adults Technology Services (OATS), have been working with AARP on projects for a decade or more, including a How to Use Zoom class early in the coronavirus pandemic that drew more than 10,000 participants, says Tom Kamber, executive director of OATS/Senior Planet. Now OATS has joined forces with AARP as an affiliated charity, like AARP Foundation, Legal Counsel for the Elderly and Wish of a Lifetime.
OATS will continue to offer its programs independently. AARP will support OATS in expanding its offerings and making them known to a wider audience through AARP’s new Virtual Community Center. The relationship with AARP allows both organizations to help more people learn the computer skills they need now more than ever because so many activities and events are available only online.
Before the pandemic, nearly three-quarters of adults in the United States had high-speed internet access at home, according to recent Pew Research Center data. But that number misses differences among age groups. About 4 of 5 adults ages 50 to 64 had high-speed internet then, higher than the U.S. average, but only 3 of 5 people 65 and older had the same access.
More than a quarter of people 65 and older told Pew researchers that they never went online. Past Pew studies have shown that online use drops even more among those 80 and older.
Tech anxiety transformed
In many cases, older adults lack confidence in their ability to use new devices and software designed to make their lives easier, the Pew researchers found. They watch from the sidelines as younger family members easily adopt new technology, potential employers use code words for age bias to target “digital native” job candidates, and the pandemic increases their isolationbecause of the COVID danger that meeting friends face to face may bring.
Jolynn Bailey, 67, a retired teacher who lives in Clifton, Texas, was a reluctant convert to technology. She had used a computer at work and for her grade books, but only because her school required it, she says. She used the computer her daughter bought her only to look at email and log on to Weight Watchers’ website.
Learn online
AARP has two places where you can sign up for free online classes and workshops:
Then the pandemic left her alone in her studio apartment with poor TV reception and a few DVDs — unable to go to the nearby gym, head to Weight Watchers meetings in Waco or meet with friends. Her daughter, who works for a tech company in California, found out about Senior Planet in April and suggested she try it. She waited three months, becoming more and more desperate for things to do.
“The first time I went on Senior Planet I was hooked,” Bailey says. “It gave me my world back and more than that, a whole new world.” Now she joins stretch or chair yoga classes to keep fit; participates in the virtual book club; and takes tech classes, even learning how to use an HDMI cable so she can watch YouTube videos from her computer on the bigger TV screen. She’s in Senior Planet discussion groups where she’s met people from across the country and often takes part in several workshops each day.
The idea for OATS/Senior Planet began when Kamber was working on part of the project to revitalize Lower Manhattan after 9/11. An 87-year-old woman in the area called him after learning about his website launch related to the project. But she didn’t have a computer and didn’t know about the internet.
Kamber ended up tutoring her in his office.
OATS was founded in 2004 in New York City as an outgrowth of those lessons. It now has Senior Planet physical centers in five additional cities: Palo Alto, California; Denver; Rockville, Maryland; Plattsburgh, New York; and San Antonio. Classes are entirely online during the pandemic, which allows anyone from across the country to participate, but in-person instruction will resume when it’s safe to do so.
Engagement erases isolation
Senior Planet programs are designed to teach adults 60 and older basic computer skills — including how to start, stop, mute, skip ads and enlarge a YouTube video — and more advanced options. Its interactive online classes, offered in English, Spanish and Chinese, are free to anyone of any age. About 50 classes are on the schedule each week.
“A lot of Latino adults aren’t up to date with technology. Some don’t even have internet access,” says Braulio “Brad” José Veloz Carvajal, a 73-year-old retiree in San Antonio who found out about the Senior Planet classes through his membership in the Pride Center San Antonio. He knew how to use a computer but retired from his job at the Pentagon in 2003, so he wanted to learn all about Google, Facetime and Zoom.
“With what I learned, I was able to talk to my family in Corpus Christi and San Antonio. That made me so happy.”— Brad Veloz, 73, of San Antonio
“With what I learned, I was able to talk to my family in Corpus Christi and San Antonio. That made me so happy,” he said after the months of lockdown because of the pandemic. “I hope Senior Planet teaches technologies that can provide a way to talk to other seniors in the Latino LGBT community and start support groups.”
Class participants can decide to just listen, speak up with questions or type comments in the chat area. Most sessions aren’t archived for future playback, although some how-tos are posted to Senior Planet’s YouTube channel, but popular courses are offered frequently.
“In some of our classes, we find that they come early and stay late to talk to each other,” Kamber says. “Our trainers seek out opportunities to engage people. They draw people out.” Follow-up with students has shown that participants are using their newfound knowledge.
Technology topics include a range of how-tos such as shopping on Amazon, using Google Maps and hosting a Zoom meeting. Some workshops focus on helping participants struggling with tech issues or learning how to keep their personal information secure. Better balance, chair yoga and stretching sessions are among Senior Planet’s fitness offerings.
“If I can Zoom, you can Zoom,” says Bailey, who decided to become a member of Senior Planet to go along with her 17-year AARP membership. “It’s not that complicated. You just need somebody to guide you through it. And that’s what Senior Planet knows how to do.”
Monica Bentivegna contributed to this story. Linda Dono is an executive editor for AARP. Previously, she served as a reporter and editor for USA Today, Gannett News Service and newspapers in four states, including The Cincinnati Enquirer.
The Virtual Community Center uses Zoom and a few other online platforms to allow users with common interests to learn together. As with Senior Planet’s offerings, these events are live and allow for interactivity — speaking or typing — with others in attendance. It’s not on-demand video.
“The Virtual Community Center is designed in many ways to be like an in-person community center. You sign up for a class and go to it” online, says Heather Nawrocki, AARP’s vice president of fun and fulfillment.
Events on a wide variety of topics, including books, fitness, history, music and screenings of AARP Movies for Grownups, are available now for signup. All are free, have no age restrictions and don’t require AARP membership to participate. Although the programs initially are in English, AARP is looking at expanding the signup platform as well as course offerings for Spanish speakers.
“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.”
-Luke 15:20
Recently, the United Kingdom appointed a Minister of Loneliness to attend to the growing public health crisis of loneliness reported by 9 million people in their country. Our culture has mastered the art of relational distance. Too many of us are content to view one another from a long way off. Our past hurts, pains, disappointments and biases keep us so isolated and alone. But like this father who saw his son and became proximal to him, we are being nudged to close the chasm of difference and remember our shared humanity.
Pastor Michael McBride (known as “Pastor Mike”) is a native of San Francisco and has been active in ministry for over 20 years. Pastor McBride’s commitment to holistic ministry can be seen through his leadership roles in both the church and community organizations. A graduate of Duke University’s Divinity School, with a Master of Divinity with an emphasis in Ethics and Public Policy, Pastor McBride founded The Way Christian Center in West Berkeley, where he presently serves as the Lead Pastor.
Bestselling author Stephen King on Monday weighed in on President Trump’s recent warnings to the migrant caravan moving through Mexico toward the United States. King’s criticism came in response to a tweet Trump shared on Sunday stating that “full efforts are being made to stop the onslaught of illegal aliens from crossing our Souther (sic) Border.” “Jesus, man,” King said in response to the tweet. “You act like the Red Chinese army was invading.” “They’re just a bunch of scared and hungry people,” the author said.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, addresses some of the greatest superbug threats—and what the agency is doing about them.
“It’s a long road from exciting things happening in the lab to getting through a clinical process to the patient’s bedside,” Kathy Talkington, director of Pew’s antibiotic resistance project, explains in a Chicago Tribune editorial.
For Men’s Health Month—June—get to know Chris Linaman. After his heartbreaking superbug experience, he’s working to help others avoid the trauma he endured.
Antibiotics are fundamental to modern medicine, essential for treating everything from routine skin infections to strep throat, and for protecting vulnerable patients receiving chemotherapy or being treated in intensive care units.
Pew’s antibiotic resistance project is working to ensure both the prudent use of existing drugs and a robust pipeline of new drugs in order to meet current and future patient needs.
You probably heard the great news – after a few years of progressive activism, FOX finally cancelled Glenn Beck’s show–but the Boycott Must Go On!!
Ten years ago, Media Matters launched with a revolutionary mission: to systematically monitor the U.S. media for conservative misinformation every day, in real time. We’ve been calling out right-wing lies for a decade — and we’re not done yet. Will you contribute now to help us raise $10,000 for our 10th anniversary?
For ten years, we’ve successfully fought back against the bad actors that poison our media with right-wing lies and smears. It’s been an amazing beginning, and we couldn’t have done it without your support.
Dear Kevin,
You probably heard the great news – after two years of progressive activism, FOX finally cancelled Glenn Beck’s show.
Beck was targeted after he slandered President Obama by saying, “This president has exposed himself as a guy, over and over and over again, who has a deep-seated hatred for white people, or the white culture, I don’t know what it is… This guy, I believe, is a racist.”
Activists at ColorOfChange, Media Matters, StopBeck, FoxNewsBoycott, and of course Democrats.com responded with a boycott of advertisers on Glenn Beck’s show. Ultimately over 300 advertisers pulled their ads from Beck, costing FOX over $40 million.
Advertiser boycotts work! And it’s time to boycott all FOX News advertisers: http://www.democrats.com/boycott-proactiv
We’re starting our boycott of all FOX News with Proactiv, which sells acne medicine to teenagers and young adults. Why?
First, there are lots of other acne treatments. Second, young adults above all are hurt by FOX News, which promotes right-wing policies on race, education, healthcare, the environment, and war. Let’s get our future leaders to lead the fight against FOX News!
Sign the petition to Proactiv and enter the email address of every young adult over 18 you know: http://www.democrats.com/boycott-proactiv
Beyond President Obama, FOX regularly slanders nearly everyone: Democrats, unionized workers, the unemployed (including veterans and 99ers), environmentalists, feminists, blacks, Hiics, Jews, Muslims, progressives, scientists, and any other group it disagrees with.
FOX News broadcasts rightwing extremist slander, incitement to violence, political propaganda, and outright lies to promote its rightwing political agenda. This is not “news,” but rather a never-ending “war on news” – and it’s all documented in our petition.
Why would any decent company want to fund it? Tell Proactiv to stop advertising on FOX News: http://www.democrats.com/boycott-proactiv
Thanks for all you do!
Bob Fertik
GLEN BECK ADMITTED in 2007, “I Am RACIST and Barack Obama is very White” THIS MAKES Boycotting FOX NEWS needed NOW
By Kevin Stoda
Dear, American supporters of the Fascist Oddball Xenophobic (FOX) news networks.
AMERICANS are getting less tolerant of your racism and stronghold on our major media.
For example, we have noted that in his 2007 TV program from FOX (See on You-Tube), Glen Beck admitted he himself was racist. Further, Beck then, in contrast to 2009, called Barrack Obama much more white than black. (Apparently, Beck now he has other nonsense to mush men’s minds.)
Using a major news platform to promote racism and to tell people to disrespect a whole presidential administration through mixed truths, outright lies, and xenophobia, is not to be tolerated any more.
On Democracy Now today, Amy Goodman asked Benjamin Jealous of the NAACP what he thought of Wal-Mart’s pull-out from advertising on the Glen Beck program on FOX.
NOTE: Goodman had simply asked , “The whole attack by Glenn Beck that drove this (resignation)? In your response from the NAACP to Van Jones, it says, ´The only thing more outrageous than Mr. Beck’s attack on Van Jones is the fact that there are sponsors that continue to pay him to provide this type of offensive commentary.` Do you support the continued boycott of companies like Wal-Mart of Beck’s show on Fox?”
This is a particularly important point because Glen Beck´s HATE CAMPAIGN ON THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION led recently to a great American policy maker, Van Jones, quitting the government this week.
Mr. Jealous said, “We certainly support them (Walmart) choosing with their dollars who they’re going to support. I mean, it’s—Glenn Beck is somebody who’s told a seven-year-old girl, a seven-year-old black girl, that he would buy her a ticket back to Africa, that she needed to go back to Africa. And then he comes out, and he says that healthcare is the beginning of reparations. I mean, this guy plays the race card on a weekly basis. He does it very aggressive—you know, in a very hateful way.”
Recall, first, that Van Jones is one of the most important and thoughtful men in America—however, the FOX (Fascist Oddball Xenophobic) news network chose to support a man, like Glen Beck, rather than seeing that tens of millions of Americans need to get health care from promoters like Jones and that our America economy needs to move starting today to the kind of economy that its competitors worldwide are already doing.
Let’s quote the wisdom and influential words of Van Jones on the absolute necessity to green the American economy NOW!
“I think it’s really important to point out that we’re sort of at the end of an era of American capitalism, where we thought we could run the economy based on consumption rather than production, credit rather than creativity, borrowing rather than building, and also, most importantly, environmental destruction rather than environmental restoration.”
Jones continued, “We’re trying to make the case in this book that that era is over. We now have to move in a very different direction. And key to that will be basing the US economy not on credit cards, but based on clean energy and the clean energy revolution that would put literally millions of people to work, putting up solar panels all across the United States, weatherizing buildings so they don’t leak so much energy and put up so much carbon, building wind farms and wave farms, manufacturing wind turbines. We argue you could put Detroit back to work not making SUVs to destroy the world, but making wind turbines, 8,000 finely machine parts in each one, twenty tons of steel in each wind tower, making wind turbines to help save the world.”
Finally, Van Jones wisely noted, “So we think that you can fight pollution and poverty at the same time. We think that you can actually power our way through this recession by putting people to work, but we’re going to have to start building things here and re-powering, retrofitting, retooling America, and that that’s the way forward both for the economy, for the earth and for everyday people.”
Note: These statements came from a program on DN from October of last year:
Another way, is to demand that local radio and TV channels put better programming on, such as Democracy Now or news sources promoted by serious progressive journalists:
Lily Greenberg CallBiden political appointee who resigned over U.S. policies on Gaza.
We speak with Lily Greenberg Call, the first known Jewish appointee to resign from the Biden administration over the war in Gaza. Greenberg Call was a special assistant to the chief of staff at the Interior Department after being named to the post by President Joe Biden in early 2023, but she quit on May 15 in a four-page letter that slammed Biden’s “disastrous, continued support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza.” Greenberg Call is at least the fifth high-profile resignation from the Biden administration since October 7. She says her resignation was motivated by her Jewish values. “I feel that I am really living in my Jewishness, in the essence of what I was raised with, by standing up for Palestinians and by demanding their freedom,” Greenberg Call tells Democracy Now!, criticizing Biden and others for pitting Jewish safety against Palestinian rights. “I am so angry at the president that he is using my community as justification for this slaughter, making us the face of the American war machine.”
Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: On May 15th, Lily Greenberg Call, a special assistant to the chief of staff at the Department of the Interior and a political appointee of President Biden, resigned from her position in protest of the administration’s policies in Gaza. In doing so, she became the first known Jewish appointee to resign from the Biden administration over Gaza.
In a four-page letter of resignation she released publicly, Greenberg Call wrote, quote, “I can no longer in good conscience continue to represent this administration amidst President Biden’s disastrous, continued support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza,” unquote.
Lily Greenberg Call chose May 15th as the date of her resignation because it marked the anniversary of the Nakba, Arabic for “catastrophe,” when up to 900,000 Palestinians were driven from their homes and displaced in 1948 during the founding of Israel. In her resignation letter, she wrote, quote, “Nakba and Shoah, the Hebrew word for Holocaust, mean the same thing: catastrophe. I reject the premise that one people’s salvation must come at another’s destruction. I am committed to creating a world where this does not happen — and this cannot be done from within the Biden administration,” she wrote.
Lily Greenberg Call joins us today in our New York studio.
Lily, welcome to Democracy Now! Thanks so much for joining us. If you can talk about the significance of the date you chose and why you have decided to resign?
LILY GREENBERG CALL: Thanks for having me, Amy.
So, as I said in my resignation letter, you know, “Nakba” and “Shoah” mean the same thing. I was raised with a fairy tale about the Nakba. The Nakba was something that I was not really told about. And if anything, it was minimized and trivialized. Was raised with this idea that Israel was a land without a people for a people without a land. And, you know, so if there’s no Palestinian society, if there’s nothing to be destroyed, then there’s nothing to mourn. So I felt, as a Jewish person, that it was particularly important for me to acknowledge the significance of the Nakba, and the Nakba that has never really ended, that continues to this day.
And, you know, as I mentioned, there’s something devastating about the parallels between the same word, “Nakba” and “Shoah,” and the idea that what Jews see as our — what many Jews see as our salvation in the formation of the state of Israel came at the expense of Palestinian freedom. And so I want us to reject that premise, the idea that Jewish safety and Palestinian freedom are at odds with each other, and understand that any system that requires that, you know, requires the oppression of one people for another, is inherently unsafe.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And could you tell us: How did your Jewish faith lead you to make this decision?
LILY GREENBERG CALL: Yeah. So, I mean, I was raised very much steeped in Jewish community. I went to Jewish day school. I have like 20 years of Jewish education. I did, you know, traditional Jewish text study in high school. And a lot of the values that I learned in that, I internalized some really beautiful values, right? There’s this idea of pikuach nefesh in Judaism, which means “saving a life,” and it supercedes any other commandment. You are allowed to break any commandment if it means saving a life. We also say, “To save a life is to save the whole world.” There’s this idea of b’tselem elohim, that every person is made in the image of God. And so, those values, in addition to the fact that Judaism is really steeped in a justice-oriented ethos, that we fight against authority — you know, Jews have been the victims of injustice, of legal injustice, of violence, of persecution, of displacement throughout our history, right? So, I feel that I am really living in my Jewishness, in the essence of what I was raised with, by standing up for Palestinians and by demanding their freedom.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And your views on the Israeli state have evolved over the years. In 2019, as a college student at UC Berkeley, you served as president of Bears for Israel, which is affiliated with AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. Could you talk about the evolution of your views?
LILY GREENBERG CALL: Yeah, of course. So, you know, as I mentioned, I was raised in a very — I was raised deeply involved in Jewish community. And within that community, it was very pro-Israel. There was no daylight between being Jewish and support for the state of Israel in the community I was raised in. And I also — you know, I believed in Israel as, like I said, the sort of salvation of the Jewish people, the way to protect Jews from antisemitism. And I grew up experiencing antisemitism from non-Jewish people in my life and in communities, and so it was really powerful for me to advocate for Israel.
But I would say, you know, as I got a little older, over the past eight years or so, two things started to happen at once, or at the same time. So, the first was that my world started to expand. I was able to get to know Palestinians, Palestinian Americans. I worked with some Syrian Palestinian refugees in Greece. I saw for myself some of the injustices that Palestinians face in Israel-Palestine — the checkpoints, you know, the system of apartheid — and started to — you know, they didn’t feel in alignment with my values — right? — and with the kind of country that — you know, the kind of world that I want to live in. So, that was happening. I also studied Arabic and just had all this exposure to Palestinian culture and life.
And at the same time, the coalition of people that I was advocating for Israel with through AIPAC started to move to the right, as Trump came to power, as the Israeli government shifted to the right. And I started to see these people who I had spent years doing pro-Israel advocacy with, in particular, you know, the evangelical Christians, support Trump and support right-wing fascists here in the United States and people who were aligning themselves with white supremacists and antisemites, right? And so, I started to realize, OK, maybe these people aren’t here because they’re invested in Jews and Jewish safety, you know, that there wasn’t — they couldn’t be — they couldn’t care about us if they were aligning with people who were so clearly antisemitic and harmful to my communities.
And so, both of those things together led me to this realization that I had been told a lie — right? — and that the status quo is untenable, and that not only is it devastating for Palestinians — right? — but I think October 7th made it very, very clear that it also doesn’t keep Israelis safe, and that if we wanted to actually create of thriving future for Israelis, for Palestinians, for Jews, for the communities that we care about here in America, something has to change.
AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to play some of what President Biden had to say earlier this month at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Days of Remembrance.
PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: Driven by ancient desire to wipe out the Jewish people off the face of the Earth, over 1,200 innocent people — babies, parents, grandparents — slaughtered in their kibbutz, massacred at a music festival, brutally raped, mutilated and sexually assaulted.
AMY GOODMAN: President Biden made those comments in April. In December, he spoke at a Hanukkah holiday reception at the White House.
PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: My commitment to the safety of the Jewish people and the security of Israel and its right to exist is independent — as an independent Jewish state is unshakable. Folks, were there no Israel, there wouldn’t be a Jew in the world who was safe — were there no Israel.
AMY GOODMAN: Lily Greenberg Call, your response?
LILY GREENBERG CALL: I don’t think Jews are safe right now. And I don’t think it’s — you know, I think that part of that is the status quo in Israel. And what makes Jews less safe is these comments from President Biden. I think, you know, continually using this message of Jewish safety as a smokescreen for Israel’s slaughter of Palestinians makes Jews less safe. It enables antisemitism.
And I just want to say that, of course, what Hamas did on October 7th is atrocious. There were people in my community among those people that he’s speaking about. But it’s very clear that the Israeli government is not prioritizing bringing the hostages home. You know, if they cared about that, they would not be bombing the densely populated area that they’re in.
And, you know, again, I am so angry at the president that he is using my community as justification for the slaughter, making us the face of the American war machine. I don’t think that makes us safe. And if he really cared about Jewish safety, he wouldn’t be doing that.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: I wanted to ask you what the reaction has been among your former colleagues in the Biden administration. You worked both for Kamala Harris and for President Biden. What’s your sense of the people within the bureaucracy of government, how they’re feeling about the continuing American support for Israel’s war in Gaza?
LILY GREENBERG CALL: There’s widespread sentiment within all levels of the administration and all agencies that the president’s continued support for Israel’s assault on Gaza is disastrous. It’s disastrous for American foreign policy, for sentiment towards Americans abroad. It’s disastrous here at home. And it’s very devastating that the leadership of the administration is not only not listening to their colleagues, but to the majority of the American people, who want a ceasefire, who are horrified by what’s happening in Gaza, and who have made their voices very clear.
AMY GOODMAN: Talk about the power of AIPAC right now. And do you think it’s diminishing, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee? And also, do you feel that the consensus, the Democratic establishment consensus, is breaking at this point? On the one hand, you have these massive protests across the country, President Biden saying, no, he’s not listening to them. Then he says he’s halting 2,000-pound bombs to Israel. But then, within a few days, he announces a billion dollars’ worth of weapons to Israel.
LILY GREENBERG CALL: Yeah, you know, I think the Democratic Party, in particular, has to make a choice. They have to decide if they’re going to align themselves with a group like AIPAC, that supports and funds and enables insurrectionists and white supremacists, and take money from the same people who fund the NRA and Big Oil, you know, people — those groups are completely blacklisted from the Democratic Party. So, are we going to align ourselves with those people and take money from them? Or are we going to choose to uplift and support progressive champions who are fighting for a multiracial democracy and the type of country that we know that we deserve and that we want? And yeah, I do think the consensus is starting to shift a little bit. I think AIPAC realizes that their power is diminishing in particular within the Democratic Party, which is why they are making this kind of shift to the right. And I think, yeah, again, the Democratic Party has to make a choice.
AMY GOODMAN: And your journey from AIPAC and CAMERA — if you can explain what that is — to where you are now? And if you’re finding more and more of your friends back then are actually shifting?
LILY GREENBERG CALL: I think so, yeah. Again, I think it is very challenging and hard to — you know, when you grow up in the communities that I’m from, it’s very hard to change. And also, you know, a lot of Jewish people, unfortunately, we have internalized this message that Jewish safety and Palestinian freedom are at odds with each other — right? — and that to ensure the safety of the Jewish people, this is unfortunately the — we have to be OK with the status quo and with what Israel is doing. And I understand that. I understand our fear of annihilation after the Holocaust. I understand the fear of antisemitism. I feel it in myself. But we cannot let that fear blind us and trick us into somehow thinking — you know, into accepting the slaughter of Palestinians. And I really urge people in my community to think about what it means for us to accept that and to be the face of that.
AMY GOODMAN: Finally, the response within the Interior Department? I mean, the secretary of interior is the first Native American cabinet member, first Indigenous cabinet member, the former New Mexico congressmember, Deb Haaland. Her response?
LILY GREENBERG CALL: Yeah, I mean, a lot of folks that I know across the administration have been supportive and understanding. You know, like I said, there is widespread dissent and sentiment within the administration that what the president is doing is disastrous. And, you know, I’ll say that I may no longer be in the federal government right now, I might not be in this administration, but I do feel that I am here upholding my oath that I took to serve the American people, to listen to them. And I’m fighting for a country that we deserve, for a shared future for Israelis and Palestinians and for our communities here in America. And I don’t see that the president is doing that.
AMY GOODMAN: Lily Greenberg Call, thanks so much for being with us, the first known Jewish political appointee to resign over President Biden’s policies on Gaza. She had been working as special assistant to the chief of staff at the Interior Department. She also worked for Biden’s election, as well as Kamala Harris’s.
Coming up, President Biden condemns the International Criminal Court’s decision to pursue arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the defense minister. We’ll speak with war crimes prosecutor Reed Brody and the renowned Israeli historian Ilan Pappé. Stay with us.
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Mar 13, 2024 — Anti–Semitism is a plague. And one that is, as I have realised in the aftermath of Hamas’s horrific terror attack in Israel on October 7, …
Apr 16, 2024 — A major driver of the spike in antisemitic incidents in 2023 were threats against synagogues and Jewish institutions. A record number of 1,009 …
Nov 25, 2023 — —Little more than a month after the attack in Israel, the French Interior Ministry said 1,247 antisemitic incidents had been reported since Oct.
Nov 17, 2023 — The Anti-Defamation League, an American Jewish advocacy group, documented a staggering 832 antisemitic incidents of assault, vandalism and …
Apr 16, 2024 — … Israel-Hamas war, according to a report released Tuesday. The Jewish advocacy group Anti-Defamation League (ADL) tallied 8,873 antisemitic …
Apr 5, 2024 — To Jews Palestine was their ancestral home, but Palestinian Arabs also claimed the land and opposed the move. Getty Images Haganah (Jewish …
Mar 14, 2024 — It means standing up to venues that cancel Jewish programming out of fear of antisemitic threats. That happened in Chicago this week when the …
Nov 26, 2023 — … Gaza … antisemitic campaign, while others thought it was pro-Israel. … Jewish culture, like the safe room at my nephew’s Jewish nursery in …
Nov 1, 2023 — The Jewish advocacy group reported that 190 of the 312 antisemitic incidents it logged from Oct. 7 to Oct. 23 “were directly linked to the war …
1 day ago — Synagogues, Jewish day schools, and kosher groceries dot the area. Yet even before Hamas’s October 7 attacks on Israel, the school district had …
Feb 2, 2024 — In a country shaped by the long Jewish history of antisemitic persecution, the viciousness of the Hamas attack has surfaced deeply ingrained …
They all evoke antisemitic themes that must be recognized and condemned. A GUIDE TO RECOGNIZING WHEN ANTI–ISRAEL. ACTIONS BECOME ANTISEMITIC. ARE YOU JEWISH?:
Apr 22, 2024 — Some protesters have been accused of anti–Semitism and harassment of Jewish students at the university. On Sunday, those allegations gathered …
Nov 1, 2023 — 7. In the case of the antisemitic incidents, most consist of verbal abuse, online slurs or threats, graffiti, and defacing of Jewish properties, …
Nov 2, 2023 — Repeated instances of hate and antisemitic attacks have amped up fears in Jewish institutions and communities, prompting heightened security, as …
Dec 15, 2023 — Zionism, as its early proponents all said, was a solution to anti–Semitism. In creating a Jewish nation state, Jews could be shielded from the …
Jun 26, 2021 — According to the Anti-Defamation League, they tallied a 75 percent increase in antisemitic attacks in the United States during the latest Israel …
Apr 2, 2024 — But not all Jewish Americans are experiencing the conflict the same way. The survey, conducted Feb. 13-25, finds that younger and older Jews …
May 7, 2024 — Biden’s remarks at the Capitol played out as pro-Palestinian protests — some of which have involved antisemitic chants and threats toward Jewish …
Oct 21, 2023 — Why this is antisemitic: Dirty/filthy Jews: These are slurs meant to demean Jewish people and cast them as unworthy, unclean, and greedy.
Oct 12, 2023 — ” Israel left Gaza in 2005, uprooting … Jewish Question.” It expanded into all … Gaza leadership is hiding out—while making all efforts to limit …
Jun 2, 2021 — “I’m worried for you,” she said. I regularly wear a kippah, a traditional Jewish head covering. It’s people like me, Jews who anti-Semites can …
Mar 21, 2024 — Unlike most polling in the United States since the war began, this survey includes enough Jewish and Muslim respondents to allow their views to …
… Israeli and Jewish settlers threatened to “drag the region into a religious war.” Hussein stated that “extremist militias of Jewish settlers” broke windows …
Oct 11, 2023 — While Hamas’ brutal assault has spurred sympathy for Israel, it also has sparked a surge of online threats against Jews, intimidation of Jewish …
Mar 15, 2009 — Anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli manifestations reached post-Second World War highs during Israel’s recent Gaza campaign. A number of new hate …
Nov 30, 2023 — The great irony of Zionism is that it has always justified itself by reprising traditional anti-Semitic cliches about Jewish rootlessness.
Dec 17, 2023 — … created a toxic mix that has perpetuated anti-Jewish sentiment throughout history. This historical overview highlights the dangers of …
Nov 19, 2018 — Not all criticism of Israel is antisemitic. But in discussions, harsh statements are often made about all Jews. Read more about it here.
Nov 18, 2021 — To make such a comparison is antisemitic and constitutes blatant hostility toward Jews, Jewish history and the legitimacy of the Jewish State of …
Oct 13, 2023 — Politics. There’s no Jewish American consensus about the conflict in Israel and Gaza. Attitudes toward Israel were already changing. The …
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Oct 26, 2023 — The conflict between Hamas and Israel reveals deep divisions within and among EU member states. These tensions are fueling both anti–Semitism …
Oct 21, 2023 — A surge in antisemitic incidents has left many in the country’s Jewish community on edge and German police have stepped up security at cultural …
Nov 27, 2023 — —Little more than a month after the attack in Israel, the French Interior Ministry said 1,247 antisemitic incidents had been reported since Oct.
Mar 7, 2024 — In article after article, we are told how Israel and western Jewish … anti-Jewish hate incidents. Organisations … How Israel’s war on Gaza …
Oct 11, 2023 — … anti-Semitic vandalism hits Paris amid 74% rise in anti-Semitic acts … Israel for the Jewish holidays. “The mood is … Gaza Strip created a …
… Palestine into Arab and Jewish states. On May 14, 1948, the State of Israel was created, sparking the first Arab-Israeli War. The war ended in 1949 with …
Apr 25, 2024 — No, Mr. Netanyahu. It is not antisemitic or pro-Hamas to point out that in a little over six months your extremist government has killed 34,000 …
Jews, Israel, and Liberal Opinion Bernard Harrison. For those inside the Jewish … war criminal . * By the end of the article … Gaza . Rational , reflective …
Encyclopedia of Jewish and Israeli history, politics and culture, with biographies, statistics, articles and documents on topics from anti–Semitism to …
Oct 12, 2023 — Intentionally or unintentionally, antisemitic ideas can cause harm to Jewish people around the world and dehumanize Jews and Israeli people who …
Oct 14, 2023 — … Jewish community and supporters of Israel is the need for solidarity. … There’s definitely anti–Semitism.” 219d ago … Jewish community 5 miles …
Dec 23, 2023 — The current war has spurred an alarming surge in antisemitic incidents, ranging from anti–Israel demonstrations in major cities around the world …
2 hours ago — Antisemitic tropes which encourage people to think criticism of Israel is muted or censored by Jewish control of the media feed into greater …
Mar 25, 2024 — PHOTO: Former President Donald Trump is introduced at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s Annual Leadership Summit. Former President Donald Trump …
… Jewish during a pro-Palestine demonstration in Madrid. … anti–Semitism and Islamophobia in New Zealand following the Israel-Hamas war. … Israel–Gaza war rages”.
Nov 7, 2023 — Is Segal an anti-Semite? Is Jewish Currents—a Jewish journal that publishes a range of critiques of Israel written by Jewish people who actually …
… Israel, Ehud Olmert, as a Fascist. This article caused a storm. However, it was not until the Second Lebanon War that the expression of anti–Israel …
Dana Barnett, Efraim Karsh · 2021 · Political Science
… Israel to lower standards. There is no dispute … anti–Semitism by holding up the banner of ‘free … Gaza confrontation, he endorsed an advertisement from a …
With help from Eli Okun, Garrett Ross and Bethany Irvine
DRIVING THE DAY
ONE LAST TREAT — Here’s uncut audio of Speaker MIKE JOHNSON doing his DONALD TRUMP impression during our big sitdown on Wednesday. Please have us back, Mr. Speaker, and you can do your CLAY HIGGINS for us.
THE LATEST TROUBLE FOR TRUMP — “Trump May Owe $100 Million From Double-Dip Tax Breaks, Audit Shows,” by NYT’s Russ Buettner and ProPublica’s Paul Kiel: “The 92-story, glass-sheathed skyscraper along the Chicago River is the tallest and, at least for now, the last major construction project by Mr. Trump. Through a combination of cost overruns and the bad luck of opening in the teeth of the Great Recession, it was also a vast money loser. But when Mr. Trump sought to reap tax benefits from his losses, the I.R.S. has argued, he went too far and in effect wrote off the same losses twice.”
President Joe Biden conflicted and evolving Israel policy was on display with the State Department’s report on Israel’s weapons use. | Jamie Kelter Davis for POLITICO
BIDEN ON AN ISLAND — If you’re looking for a microcosm of President JOE BIDEN’s conflicted and evolving Israel policy over the past few weeks, consider the much-anticipated report the State Department issued last night examining whether Israel used American weapons to violate human rights in Gaza.
The memorandum to Congress determined that “it is reasonable to assess” that Israel used U.S. weapons in ways that are “inconsistent” with international law. At the same time, it concluded there isn’t sufficient evidence to say so declaratively, thus finding that Israel is still eligible for U.S. military aid. Read the report
“There was a whiff of accountability but ultimately no greater reprimand, allowing the Biden administration to continue sending weapons to Israel as it fights Hamas while gingerly appeasing vocal critics,”our colleagues Nahal Toosi, Lara Seligman and Alex Ward write.
In other words, it’s precisely the kind of delicate line-walking that has annoyed and alienated voices on all sides of the Gaza conflict recently, and the findings have left Biden “increasingly isolated” in the political world, as WaPo’s Toluse Olorunnipa and Jacqueline Alemany write.
On the left: Many Democrats feel the Biden administration pulled its punches, turning a blind eye to the mass killing of civilians and dodging an opportunity to provide moral clarity. Sen. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN (D-Md.) said the memo “fails to do the hard work of making the assessment and ducks the ultimate questions.”
One unnamed Democratic lawmaker was blunter, telling WaPo: “It reeks of cowardice — an unwillingness to state the obvious.”
On the right: Republicans continued to accuse Biden of turning his back on Israel and weakening U.S. national security in the process.
“It’s reprehensible that Biden has more criticism for Israel than the terrorists launching rockets at playgrounds,” Sen. TOM COTTON (R-Ark.) — who has declared the House “has no choice but to impeach” Biden over his handling of the situation — tweeted Friday
Idaho Sen. JIM RISCH, the top Foreign Relations Republican, accused the White House of “attempting to placate voters on the far left at the expense of a close ally in the midst of its justified war with Hamas terrorists.”
The big picture:We’re a long ways past the widespread praise Biden received from both sides of the aisle for his initial response to Hamas’ Oct. 7 terrorist attack that left 1,200 people dead. Now, the expanding discontent with his response threatens to become a re-election nightmare by alienating young and progressive voters and becoming a cudgel for Republicans.
The report is a telling companion to the policy pivot Biden is trying to execute this week. It keeps the option for continued offensive military aid to Israel open while he is also (1) pausing a shipment of bombs to Israeli and (2) threatening to halt additional weapons due to concerns about PM BENJAMIN NETANYAHU’s plans to invade Rafah in southern Gaza.
But the risk that the situation could spiral out of control seem obvious: Negotiators remain unable to notch a ceasefire agreement, and Netanyahu has doubled down on his insistence on a full-scale incursion into Rafah, with Biden refraining from publicly identifying what red line would cause him to cut off the flow of arms.
Related read:“Isolated and Defiant, Israel Vows to ‘Stand Alone’ in War on Hamas,” by NYT’s Damien Cave: “The complex, layered reproof from around the world cannot be ignored as just the whims of anti-Israel activists. Israel is facing real consequences, from security to economics.”
In 2022, Congress supported our nation’s hardworking farmers with a $20 billion investment in conservation practices. These funds strengthen family businesses by lowering costs and helping farmers prepare for extreme weather.
Now, some want to direct these funds toward less effective practices that threaten farmers’ ability to weather storms, grow healthy soils through climate-smart farming, and pass on their land to the next generation.
NOWHERE AND EVERYWHERE —NIKKI HALEY has barely been publicly seen or heard in the two months since she suspended her presidential campaign. Yet she continues to have a huge presence in the 2024 race.
She has racked up hundreds of thousands of primary votes as a zombie candidate, with dozens of states still yet to vote. And there is new evidence this morning that both the Biden and Trump campaigns are strategizing over how to appeal to the “double-doubter” voters she is clearly attracting.
This morning, our colleaguesAdam Wren, Elena Schneider and Natalie Allison report on the Biden campaign’s “larger — and mostly behind-the-scenes — strategy” to reel in those Haley voters, viewing them “as a core part of its coalition this fall, especially as polls show some erosion among traditional Democratic groups such as young voters.”
They’re targeting ads at the mainly suburban voters Haley has been attracting. They’re wooing some of her high-dollar donors and former endorsers. Trump’s campaign, on the other hand, hasn’t seemed to do much of anything — all but snubbing Haley and her followers.
But this morning,Axios’ Alex Thompson reports that might be changing: Trump, he writes, has moved his one-time rival off his “blacklist” and is again considering her as his running mate.
We are pretty damn skeptical that Trump would choose anyone but a true MAGA die-hard after his experience with MIKE PENCE. But Thompson points out there’s potential upside on both sides: Haley could help Trump with his fundraising deficiency and swing-voter problem; Haley could boost her future presidential ambitions by making amends with Trump.
But sure enough, Trump himself confirmed our instincts: Posting to Truth Social at 11:13 a.m., he wrote, “Nikki Haley is not under consideration for the V.P. slot, but I wish her well!”
A message from INVEST IN OUR LAND:
America’s farmers deserve to pass on their land and life’s work to their children. Help protect farms from the effects of extreme weather.
Biden is in Washington state, where he is scheduled to participate in a campaign reception this afternoon before traveling to Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, later this evening.
VP KAMALA HARRIS has nothing on her public schedule.
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International concensus is that Biden is a world oultier and has been outrageous on his love buddies in Israel government. They are criminals and he is in bed with them.
Biden says ICC move on arrest warrants for Israeli leaders “outrageous”
By Reuters
May 20, 202412:11 PM CDTUpdated 19 hours ago
WASHINGTON, May 20 (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden on Monday slammed the International Criminal Court prosecutor’s application for arrest warrants for senior Israeli officials including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, calling the move “outrageous”.
“And let me be clear: whatever this prosecutor might imply, there is no equivalence – none – between Israel and Hamas. We will always stand with Israel against threats to its security.” Biden said in a statement.
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His top aide Secretary of State Antony Blinken also criticized the move, raising questions over the court’s jurisdiction as well as its process in making this application. He added that it could jeopardize negotiations to achieve a hostage deal and a ceasefire.
“Fundamentally, this decision does nothing to help, and could jeopardize, ongoing efforts to reach a ceasefire agreement that would get hostages out and surge humanitarian assistance in,” Blinken said.
WEBApr 3, 2024 · Overview. Context. Strategy. Results. Guatemala is the largest economy in Central America in terms of population (estimated at 17.3 million in 2022) and economic …
WEBGUATEMALA. Table 1. 2023. Population, million GDP, current US$ billion. GDP per capita, current US$ International poverty rate ($2.15)a Lower middle-income poverty rate …
WEBNov 15, 2016 · A team from the CSIS Global Food Security Project recently traveled to Guatemala, home of the largest Feed the Future portfolio in the Americas. Despite its …
WEBAug 27, 2020 · EXECUTIVE SUMMARY. USAID/Guatemala’s Country Development Cooperation Strategy (CDCS) 2020-2025 seeks to address the systemic development …
The Biden administration took a major step toward reclassifying marijuana from a Schedule 1 drug to a Schedule 3 drug. The move will not decriminalize marijuana but acknowledges its medical benefits and differentiates it from lethal drugs like heroin or meth. The move would also ease tax burdens on states that have legalized marijuana sales. Biden hailed the “monumental” step Thursday.
President Joe Biden: “No one should be in jail merely for using or possessing marijuana, period. Far too many lives have been upended because of a failed approach to marijuana. And I’m committed to righting those wrongs.”
As a senator, Joe Biden authored the 1986 Anti-Drug Abuse Act, enacting new mandatory minimum sentences for drugs including marijuana. The law led to a fivefold increase in the jailing of Black people.
Another Deportation Flight Leaves the U.S. for Haiti Despite “Grave Dangers”
MAY 17, 2024
Back in the U.S., immigrant rights groups continue to demand the Biden administration immediately halt deportations to Haiti and enact protections for Haitian migrants as the island nation faces a worsening humanitarian crisis, deepening gang violence and political instability. Advocates said Thursday another group of Haitian asylum seekers had been deported — the second deportation flight since April. The Haitian Bridge Alliance said the “deeply troubling policy … places vulnerable individuals in grave danger.”
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, families gathered Wednesday to bury nearly two dozen children who were killed earlier this month after rocket attacks on camps for displaced people near the city of Goma. Another 13 victims, mostly women, were also buried. Mourners blamed the M23 armed group for the killings and condemned neighboring Rwanda for backing the group. This is Congolese Human Rights Minister Albert Fabrice Puela.
Albert Fabrice Puela: “A Congolese genocide for economic reasons is being perpetrated in our country by Rwanda. War crimes, such as those of May 3rd in Mugunga, crimes against humanity, have all been documented.”
Rwanda has denied the accusations, saying the attacks were likely carried out by militias backed by the Congolese army. Intensifying violence in the eastern DRC has forced hundreds of thousands to flee as armed groups vie for control of the country’s natural resources.
Lydie Mutombo: “There are a lot of foreign countries behind Rwanda President Paul Kagame, and they’re killing my people because of the minerals that the Congo has. If they want to work with the Congo, they shouldn’t go through Kagame. Let them come and negotiate with us, and we’ll know how to make the ore available to them so that we can all benefit from it.”
The Biden administration is moving to end all new coal leasing in the Powder River Basin of Wyoming and Montana — the largest coal-producing region in the United States. The move comes in response to a lawsuit by environmental groups.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott has pardoned Daniel Perry, the U.S. Army sergeant who was convicted and sentenced to 25 years for murdering Black Lives Matter protester Garrett Foster in 2020. Ahead of the murder, Perry posted on social media he planned to shoot “looters,” and posted dozens of racist and Islamophobic messages and images. While people with felonies are not permitted to own firearms in Texas, Governor Abbott’s pardon means Perry will be legally allowed to carry and possess a gun.
Data: 
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) greets Jason Miller, adviser to President Trump, at the Capitol yesterday. Photo: Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call via Getty ImagesHistorians are already drawing lessons from Impeachment II, Axios managing editors David Nather and Margaret Talev 
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